Aftermath of Cemetery Brawl Discussed at Portlaoise Municipal District

FOLLOWING a brawl at the annual Church Sunday Remembrance day outside Portlaoise town on Sunday the 14th of June, Portlaoise Councillors decided that next steps would involve a general meeting with all stakeholders, including the Monsignor, the Gardai and the Laois Traveller Action Group.

The motion discussing the recent affray was brought to the latest meeting of the Portlaoise Municipal District by Councillor Caroline Dwane Stanley who, along with being present during the brawl, is also a member of the Church Sunday Committee.

To those gathered, she recalled that they had never had any problems with anti-social behaviour at the commemoration up until a year ago; in 2025, there was what she described as a small ruckus that only included six or seven people among the three-thousand gathered.

"Bit of hustling and bustling but it reached a completely different scale this year," said the Councillor.

Along with Councillor Marie Tuohy and Catherine Fitzgerald, Councillor Dwane Stanley arrived to the Cemetery early on Sunday to find a large Gardaí presence in place which they said contributed to everyone feeling safer and more secure when the brawl kicked off. The Councillor said:

"It was actually pitiful to hear the Monsignor pleading with people from the altar to calm, and afterward he made an appeal to have a meeting with the Gardai because the future of the cemetery mass is at risk, and I don't believe for one minute we should be allowed to let six or seven people hold the county to ransom."

Following discussions last week, Councillor Dwane Stanley said that everyone concluded that the best approach going forward would be to secure the event's future with a meeting of all relevant stakeholders in the community. When reached out to join the discussion, representatives of the local traveller group also agreed to join the meeting – with the hopes being that they may be able to exert some measure of influence over certain individuals during Church Days.

Asked by Dwane Stanley if they would join the discussion, the vast majority of Councillors agreed to attend. Concluding her remarks, the Councillor said:

"The community is hurt by what happened and they are calling out to all of us to do something about it."

The Council as a collective also agreed to send a formal acknowledgement to the Gardai who protected and secured the event throughout the brawl, all agreeing that things might have played out very differently had they not been on hand.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme